Newman: Which Rutgers basketball team is the real one?

Rutgers forward Deshawn Freeman sits on the bench during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Purdue, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)(Photo: Adam Hunger, AP)

The season is 25 games old after Rutgers fell to No. 3 Purdue, 78-76, Saturday evening at the RAC. Twenty-five games in, and there are two different, distinct versions of the Scarlet Knights. Twenty-five games in, and no one can be certain which version is real.

There is the version of the Scarlet Knights, who host Indiana (12-12, 5-7 Big Ten) on Monday evening (7 p.m., BTN), that has given good teams fits.

That group beat 15th-ranked Seton Hall in Piscataway, went tooth-and-nail with Florida State, and then again vs. No. 3 Michigan State. It beat Wisconsin, lost to the Spartans in overtime in East Lansing, and, on Saturday, was a play or two away from dealing the Boilermakers their first loss since Nov. 23 in a Battle 4 Atlantis consolation game against Western Kentucky.

The other version is the one fans have become well-accustomed to through the years. That version followed up the Seton Hall win, a landmark accomplishment under Steve Pikiell, with consecutive two-point home losses to the second-year head coach's old program, Stony Brook, and Hartford. A 29-point stomping at the hands of Illinois on Wednesday in Champaign felt like a rock-bottom moment.

So, which is it? Is Rutgers a team that can play up to competition, scaring some of the Big Ten's elite like Michigan State and Purdue? Or, is Rutgers still a punchline, losing to mid-majors at home and getting dragged across the pavement by the dregs of its own league?

"Consistency is really what we're looking for," junior guard Corey Sanders said after scoring 31 points on 13-for-27 shooting to go along with seven rebounds in 39 minutes. "We took Michigan State to overtime, we pushed them to the edge here. Seton Hall, Florida State. There are all games where we played good, but then you have a game like Illinois.

Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell, left, reacts while talking to an official during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Purdue, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Adam Hunger, AP

Purdue forward Matt Haarms (32) congratulates and helps up Dakota Mathias (31) after Mathias took a foul against Rutgers during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Adam Hunger, AP

Rutgers forward Deshawn Freeman sits on the bench during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Purdue, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Adam Hunger, AP

Purdue head coach Matt Painter directs his team against Rutgers during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018, in Piscataway, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
Adam Hunger, AP

"A bad loss to Hartford, things like that. Hopefully, we can gain from this game and build for the last stretch."

"It's just consistency, that's something we're still trying to learn," freshman guard Geo Baker said. "Obviously, we're a young team and we have to learn how to bring it every single night. We can't play down to competition. We have to know our identity, which is playing hard. We have to be consistent with that."

Sanders and Baker just told you which of the two versions Rutgers really is without actually saying it. The honest answer is that the Scarlet Knights currently reside somewhere in between those two versions.

With Sanders and Baker carrying the load, Rutgers is playing hard enough and is disciplined enough under Pikiell to scare the daylights out of a Michigan State. Sanders has enough confidence in his own game to will Rutgers past a Seton Hall, or get his team to the doorstep of a court-storming against a Purdue.

Conversely, this team is young enough, and Pikiell's depth is thin enough where an ugly loss to Illinois isn't outside the realm of possibility. Home losses to America East teams, seemingly unfathomable after the win Seton Hall win, are an abomination from any Power Five school. If Pikiell didn't already understand the enormity that is a Rutgers rebuild, Stony Brook and Hartford should have taken care of that.

Whichever version you believe to be the real Rutgers, consider this. The Scarlet Knights' very best, plus just a little more at the end, might be good enough to beat a top-five team. Keep that in mind as the Big Ten Tournament comes up at the end of this month at Madison Square Garden.

"I felt they would show up, just because of the way they lost in the Illinois game," said Purdue head coach Matt Painter, whose team beat Rutgers, 82-51, back on Jan. 3 in West Lafayette. "I thought the team that would show up was the team that beat Seton Hall. The team that played at Michigan State, and that's what I told them.

"You look at those two games and you watch Rutgers, that team shows up, you're going to have a dogfight, and that's the team that showed up."

No one said this thing was going to be easy. Some nights, Rutgers is going to give Michigan State and Purdue a legitimate scare. Other nights, it will lose to Illinois. If the Scarlet Knights ever find the consistency Sanders and Baker spoke about, that first version may finally be the only one talked about.